Just wanted to relay a story about how almost indestructable a tortoise really is.While drilling holes today for frog feeders (I use Fasttracks turnouts with the frogs powered and switched using the contacts on the tortoise) I accidently drilled into the tortoise. When I tried to throw it,I got nothing. I disassembled the tortoise and noticed I had drilled into the top gear,damaging two of the teeth. I thought if I swapped the top gear with the bottom one,maybe the stepped down lower gear would not need all the teeth to function.For those who never saw the inside of a tortoise,there are three gears to step down the action of the motor. After swapping the gears,I tried moving the lever by hand to see if it worked. All seemed ok,so I reassembled the tortoise and tried it under power…voila!..works as good as if some nitwit had never drilled into it in the first place! I’ve used tortoise for 17 years,never had one fail,no matter what I’ve done to them. Worth every discounted penny I pay for them!
Tom